Milestone for Helping Children with Autism Package

Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers, Jan McLucas today joined Member for Robertson, Deb O’Neill at the Central Coast Aspect School in Terrigal to mark the achievement of the 500,000th service under the Australian Government’s $220 million Helping Children with Autism package.

The Helping Children with Autism package provides early intervention services to young children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, including access to Autism Advisors, family support and playgroups.

“Our government is proud that just over three years into this important initiative we have been able to support more than 16,000 young children with autism have a better start in life,” Senator McLucas said.

“Early intervention and ongoing family support can make a huge difference to children’s quality of life, making it easier for them to attend school and participate in everyday activities.”

Early intervention services where families can access professional assistance for their child are available in more than 1300 locations across Australia through the Helping Children With Autism package.

More than 2,200 children have been supported through PlayConnect Playgroups and more than 4,000 parents and carers have attended Early Days Workshops across the country to date.

Six Autism Specific Early Learning Centres have also been set up across the country, offering early learning and care services, and helping children to grow in confidence and experience playing and learning with others.

Medicare rebates for the development of a treatment and management plan for eligible children under the age of 13. Medicare rebates are now available for up to four allied health diagnostic services and for up to 20 relevant allied health treatment services per eligible child.

Building on the success of Helping Children with Autism, the Australian Government established the Better Start for Children with Disability initiative from July 1 2011.

Better Start gives children under the age of six who have been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, and vision or hearing impairments including deafblindness, access to up to $12,000 in early intervention funding.

Families are able to choose how to use their funding by selecting service providers from a panel of professionals. They have until their child’s seventh birthday to use the funding.

Children in outer regional, rural and remote areas are also eligible for an additional one-off payment of $2,000 to help meet the costs of accessing services such as travel and home visits.

For more information parents on Helping Children with Autism and Better Start, visit www.fahcsia.gov.au.